The European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology (ESPE) and the European Society of Endocrinology 
(ESE) are delighted to announce that the winner of the new Joint ‘Endocrinology Across the Life Course
Award’ has been awarded to Professor Sadaf Farooqi today during the opening session of the Joint 
Congress of ESPE and ESE 2025 ‘Connecting Endocrinology Across the Life Course’, in Copenhagen, 
Denmark.

The inaugural Joint ‘Endocrinology Across the Life Course Award’ is a prestigious recognition awarded to a
clinician or basic scientist who has made a significant contribution to endocrinology across the life course.
Nominations were judged by the Joint Scientific Programme Committee for the Joint Congress.
Sadaf Farooqi is Professor of Metabolism and Medicine at the University of Cambridge based at the 
Institute of Metabolic Science and Consultant Physician in Endocrinology at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in 
Cambridge, UK.

She was educated at the University of Birmingham where she studied Medicine, and was awarded a
Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery degree with Distinction in 1993. After junior hospital posts in 
Birmingham and Oxford, she moved to the University of Cambridge, where she was awarded a PhD in 2001 
for research on the genetics of severe childhood obesity.

During her career as a Clinician Scientist, Sadaf Farooqi has made fundamental contributions to the 
discovery and understanding of mechanisms that control human eating behaviour and energy homeostasis. 
Her work has changed attitudes towards people with severe obesity by demonstrating its biological basis. 
By defining human genetic obesity syndromes and their physiological consequences, her research has 
changed the investigation, management and, in several cases, the treatment of children and adults with 
severe obesity.

She has published over 200 papers in the field and has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 
recognition of her contributions to science. 

Professor Farooqi delivered a lecture on “Obesity: from molecules to medicine” during the Joint Congress 
Opening Ceremony, before being presented with the Award.

Sadaf commented “I am deeply honoured to receive this award in recognition of our team’s work. Over the 
last two decades, we have learned that obesity is an endocrine disease. I look forward to working with my 
 colleagues and members of both Societies to harness that knowledge to deliver treatments which improve 
the lives of children and adults with obesity”.